Globe Telecom said earnings took a hit in the first semester of 2020 due to the COVID-19 lockdown, whose movement restrictions also forced the company to slow down on network upgrades.
Globe said in a stock exchange filing on Tuesday that core income in the first six months sank 8 percent to P11 billion while service revenues were down 1 percent to P72.4 billion.
The enhanced community quarantine period from March through the end of May also disrupted Globe’s rollout of crucial telecommunications infrastructure.
As a result, the company expects full-year capital spending to hit around P50.3 billion, 20 percent lower than the original budget of P63 billion.
Globe CEO Ernest Cu said the COVID-19 pandemic was expected to pull down revenues by a “low single digit” this year.
Helping blunt the effects of the slowdown, Globe said home broadband revenues grew 19 percent to P12.5 billion in the first semester as total subscribers surged by 58 percent to 2.9 million over the same period last year. INQ